The House Next Door
by Crazy4Cocopuffs
Summary: A ghost story come to life. Summary inside. Trust me, it's good.


The House Next Door 

Pairings: Starfire (Kori)/Robin (Richard), Raven(Rae) /Beast Boy (Mark)

Summary: On a whim, Kori Anders (Starfire) bets her twin brother, Mark (Beast Boy), that she can spend the entire night alone at the spooky, abandoned house next door. The place is seriously creepy, but she's determined to overcome her fears and prove her brother wrong. Until she finds herself reliving a horrific night from the house's past and a passionate love with a handsome- and strangely familiar- young man.

When Mark finds her, he's sure it was all just a dream. Yet Kori has persistent paranormal experiences involving the house and the young man from the past. As her "dreams" intensify, Kori becomes convinced that they are very real… and that she had a dreadful part to play in the supernatural reenactment of a tragic love.

AN: Sorry this showed up as just a summary. Thanks to Absentia for letting me know. And to Miss Blackfire for my first review!

This is AU. I'm using Kori for Starfire and I don't know what BB's real name is so I'm making it Mark. Let me know if it's okay to use Mark or if I should put his real name (but you need to tell me what it is!). Happy reading!

Chapter One

"You've decided _what_?" Kori demanded. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I haven't lost my mind, and I think it's a good idea," Raven told her. "Our next English assignment's to write about something strange or scary, right? So I've decided to write about you and Mark."

For a moment Kori forgot the notebooks, papers, and junk food piled around her at the foot of the bed. Instead, she gazed over at her best friend and groaned.

"Rae, please tell me you're kidding. And please tell me Mark's the scary one."

Raven's face brightened. "I'm not kidding. Everyone's fascinated by twins; the bond between them, the way they communicate-"

"He yells 'Hey Stupid!' That's how he communicates with me."

"Very funny. Come on, it's a great idea! I know you both so well, I won't feel weird interviewing you. It can be an in-depth, sensitive, soul-searching kind of thing."

"Mark has no depth." Frowning, Kori considered the matter, then shook her head. "The soul part I'm not sure about, but you can definitely rule out sensitive."

Raven leaned one hip against the vanity table and carefully inspected her pale pink nails. "This is me ignoring you. In the meantime, I have three weeks to come up with some fantastically brilliant questions."

"Okay, here's one. How about the probability that my _real_ twin and I were separated at birth, and someone left Mark on our doorstep as a bad joke?"

"Not exactly what I had in mind." Raven frowned. "And is that the last brownie I see you eating?"

Kori's hand froze halfway to her mouth. Sheepishly, she lowered the brownie, broke off a section, and held it in Raven's direction.

"I thought you said these were terrible," She defended herself as Raven snatched it away.

"They are, but I'm totally stressed out. God, Kori, I don't know why you even try doing homemade. Why don't you just use a mix?"

"This _is_ a mix."

"That's so pathetic." Raven swallowed the brownie and promptly made a face. "Okay, listen. Questions can really make or break an interview, you know. Remember when I interviewed that medium for the school newspaper, and I asked her all that stuff about séances, and then I won that journalism award-"

"And then she turned out later to be a big fake?" Kori reminded her.

"Thank you very much. The fact remains, I still did a great interview! And my paper on you and Mark will be a- a masterpiece!"

Sighing, Kori ran a hand through her long red hair. Just the thought of having her private life exposed made her cringe. Not to mention how Mark would react to being linked to her in any way, shape, or form- twins or not.

"Look, just forget about Mark and me," she urged. "Write about something else that's strange or scary. Something _interesting_."

Raven looked indignant. "Well, I can't write about what _really_ scares me, can I? Do you think Mr. Hoffman's going to give me an A for 'What If Nobody Invites Me To The Winter Dance'?"

"Someone'll ask you. Someone _always_ asks you."

"Yeah, but the someones who usually ask me and the someone- I mean someones- I _wish_ would ask me are very _different_ someones!"

"Any someone I might know?" Kori mentioned casually, but Raven didn't seem to hear. Instead she caught her shoulder length black (dyed) hair in a upsweep and began twirling the length of the room.

"It's all Cyborg's fault anyways," Raven declared.

"How's that?"

"He invited me months and months ago, then his family decided to move away!"

"The nerve of him." Hiding a smile, Kori adjusted one cuff of her crocheted sweater. "So just go alone, if nobody asks you."

"I'd be completely mortified."

"You can go with me. I don't have a date."

"You never do."

"Ouch. Are we feeling a little mean?"

Raven pirouetted (a ballet spin) to a stop, instantly apologetic. "That's not what I meant. I just meant that if any of the guys from school asked you, you _know_ you wouldn't go."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You're much too particular. It's a well-known fact."

In spite of their joking, Kori felt herself grow offensive. "Well, I might go!" she insisted. "And what's so bad about being particular? I'd love to have a boyfriend. So why shouldn't I hold out for what I really want?"

"Because the guy you really want could never exist in real life," Raven scolded. "You told me about your dream guy a million times. Your tall, dark, handsome hero. _Nobody_ could be that perfect. And not to change the subject, but when are we going to fix up this bedroom? It's plain, it's dark-"

"You _are_ changing the subject, and no matter how good you are at it, our test is still tomorrow, so could you please concentrate on English Lit for maybe two whole seconds?"

"I'll never use it when I become a supermodel-actress."

"Not even to star in a blockbuster film that's based on some Jane Austin novel?"

"It's completely old fashioned, Kori. Your room, I mean, not English Lit, although-"

"I like old fashioned."

"This furniture is ugly-"

"Antique," Kori corrected her. Her green eyes made a quick, satisfied sweep of the room, from the four-poster bed to the skirted dressing table to the pale, flowery wallpaper that had seen better days. "Antique." She repeated, her gave returning to Raven. "It belonged to some great-great-who-knows-how-great aunt on my mother's side, and I like it. It makes me feel like I'm in a… a sweeter time."

Raven turned to Kori and raised a critical eyebrow. "_Sweeter time_? What does that mean, exactly- sweeter time? Dull, maybe. Sweet, no. You know, despite my best efforts to corrupt you, you are still way too serious. I'm beginning to feel like a total failure!"

"It's my job to be serious. _Somebody_ has to keep you in line."

Kori settled herself more comfortably with her notebooks, unwrapped a candy bar, and glanced up again as Raven walked past the bed and over to the window.

"Now what are you doing?"

Raven lifted the shade and peered out into the night. "I bet I know what you're doing _your_ English paper on," she said softly. "The strange and scary house next door…where ghosts and ghouls stare in at Kori Anders."

Kori felt her nerves tighten, but she did her best to sound indifferent. "You mean the old Farmington place? Why would I want to write about that?"

"Because it's creepy and spooky and the whole thing should be torn down."

"The whole neighborhood should be town down," Kori sighed. "Current residence included."

Raven sent her a sympathetic glance. "Well, at least this isn't as bad as the crazy Miss Lobergs' house. They must have been born in that house…they've lived there forever."

Kori nodded agreement. The two crazy sisters lived at the other end of the neighborhood and had long been a part of local folklore.

"You remember the time I tried to turn my car around in their driveway"- Raven giggled- "and the tall one came flying off the porch throwing rocks at me?"

"You were dressed like a giant shamrock, for God's sake. And it wasn't rocks, it was peanuts. She was out feeding her squirrels when you showed up. You're lucky you didn't give her a heart attack."

Raven looked offended. "It was St. Patrick's Day! And, anyway, I won first prize for the most original costume."

"Miss Loberg thought you were pretty original, all right."

"Well, I don't care what you say," Raven insisted. "Those two old ladies are crazy."

"Eccentric," Kori corrected her again.

"They kill stray animals and eat little children for breakfast. Everyone says so."

"Everyone who?" Kori asked, but Raven rushed on.

"This area's not safe anymore. I wish you guys would move."

Kori wished so, too. The entire neighborhood was sad and rundown- one of the oldest in Jump City- but ever since Kori's father died, there hadn't been enough money to consider moving anywhere else.

Raven, on the other hand, lived on the west side of town - 'Posh Park' as their friends called it- with her own car and credit cards, a swimming pool, and a housekeeper. Raven was the only child of two wealthy surgeons, Kori's mom was a night-shift nurse at the hospital. Raven had vacationed in Europe seventeen times; Kori had lived her whole life within a three hundred mile radius. Yet, despite such different backgrounds and upbringings, something special had clicked between the two girls that very first week of high school.

Kori smiled now, remembering.

She and Mark had just moved to town, and while Mark had been an instant hit with guys and girls alike, Kori had felt awkward and isolated in her new surroundings. She had been sitting alone at lunch one day when Raven had approached her, all in neon purple suede and self-confident swagger.

"Hey! New girl!" She'd sat down without an invitation and promptly helped herself to half of Kori's sandwich. "You _are_ new, right?"

Startled, Kori managed a nod.

"Yeah, well, being new sucks big time, let me tell you." Raven had grabbed her hand and shaken it. "I'm Raven, Rae, whatever. Also new in Jump City. Daughter of Mr. Just-Appointed-Head-Honcho at the hospital- that's director of Jump City General to you- which means I've been kidnapped and brought here kicking and screaming against my will. I don't know a soul- which doesn't bother me in the least- but these girls around here all think they're _more_ than special- which they're most definitely not- and there seems to be some pathetic little rule about not letting new girls into any of these pathetic little cliques. So this is how I figure it. You and I can be our _own_ clique. And then _they_ can be the outsiders. What do you say?"

That had been nearly four years ago. And although Kori had eventually made friends and Raven was by far the most popular girl in school, the two of them had remained close.

"Kori, are you listening to me?"

With a start, Kori turned her attention back to the window. Raven was gazing outside again, her voice lowered to a shivery whisper.

"See how it just sits there and watches us? Like some big old corpse? Come over here and look."

"Oh, for heaven's sakes." With a bravery that she didn't really feel, Kori got up and marched across the room. She stopped behind Raven, and together they stared into the darkness.

Pale moonlight flickered behind a bank of ragged clouds, throwing the Farmington house in and out of shadow. A raw November wind scraped dead leaves along the now deserted driveway below.

From here they could see over the fence and across the wide expanse of property next door, across the deep patches of overgrown weeds and wild, tangled shrubbery that rendered the house practically invisible from the street. Clumps of ivy and drooping oaks overhung its chimneys and porches. Once-white Victorian walls had weathered to an ashen gray, and broken gingerbread trim hung from the eaves like scabs. The three story Farmington house sat there on its huge lot, far back and all alone, completely enclosed by a high, spiked, wrought-iron fence. Its second-floor windows were clearly visible from Kori's room, and all of them were covered by tattered lace curtains.

Kori always felt cold when she looked at that house- bone-deep cold even on the hottest day and surrounded by people. It was as though some primal instinct always roused inside of her, calling her, yet warning her at the same time. She's tried to explain it once to Mark and Raven, but they teased her so unmercifully that she'd never mentioned it again. Not that they'd ever forgot it, she thought ruefully, or let _her _forget it.

"Okay, Rae." Pulling back from the window, Kori tried to keep her voice steady. "Enough ghost stories for one night."

But Raven's dark eyes had a mischievous twinkle. "Do you think it's really haunted? Like everyone says?"

Before Kori could answer, Raven turned back to the window, propping her elbows on the sill, peering out once more into the night.

Kori sat down on the bed. With grim determination she picked up some papers and began sorting through them.

"Okay, Raven, I'll quiz you first. Let's do the romantic poets and the influence they had on-"

"Oh God," Raven said softly.

For a second, Kori was confused. She skimmed the paper in front of her and frowned.

"No, that's not right. Mr. Hoffman said we wouldn't go into any religious aspects of-"

"Someone's there, Kori. In the house."

Kori looked up. She could see Raven standing ramrod straight, her fingers gripping the edge of the windowsill. She could hear the trembling in her voice.

"Someone's watching us, Kori."

For a brief second Kori hesitated. Then she forced a laugh.

"Come on, Rae, stop playing around. It's getting late and we're not even halfway done."

"I'm not joking." Without taking her eyes from the windowpane, Raven motioned her friend to come closer. "Look. There…in that window."

Kori didn't want to look. Her body felt weighed down, and there was an odd pounding in the back of her head.

"Turn off the lights," Raven said.

Kori nodded. She touched the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. She crept over to Raven's side and swept her gaze across the house next door.

"See it?" Raven nudged her. "Please tell me you see it."

A shiver crawled up Kori's spine.

"I…"

Her voice seemed to freeze in her throat. She was vaguely aware that she and Raven were clutching hands.

It was more like a shadow, really- a sharpened silhouette framed by the window on the second floor. It hovered there behind torn lace curtains, but Kori was absolutely certain now that it was watching them.

She could feel the eyes.

A gaze so piercing, so intense, that it chilled her very soul.


End file.
